Names can be seen as questionable. Isn't zoe also the name for the life force? My wonderful daughter in law's maiden name was Doe. I wonder who believed that one. And the owner of a small clothing store in Buckhead, a Mr. Penny, named his first born son J. C.

It sounds as if France - as well as Britain and other countries - is becoming infected by "the American Disease," i.e., an excessive number of lawyers.

Though Norway has had laws like that for a long time. There is a law prohibiting "foreign" names unless the name is traditional in the family, and after WWII at least, there is a law prohibiting "ridiculous" names such as "Bombardina" for a girl born during an aerial raid.

It is a bit silly to worry about kids making fun of a name. There is no name kids cannot rise to the challenge of mocking. Worry about a name that will get them mocked as *adults*, like "Dick Johnson" or the like.

France has had this name thing going on for a long time. Prior to 1789 it was a right of a feudal seigneur to approve the christened names of their tenants and dependents; since every day corresponded to at least one feast the customary choice was the name of the saint whose feast day matched the birthday.

After the Revolution anti-clericalism dictated that saint's names were outlawed: no more Henris, Jeans, Pierres or Francoises. Instead the committees recommended names from classical antiquity, especially names which invoked good republican values, names like Brutus, Pericles, Leonidas and Lucretia. If such a highfalutin name wasn't to the parents taste the Revolution suggested names derived from practical, everyday life. Hence the name Haricot (or Haricotte for a girl).

We American's tend to believe that the state should have no role in how we name our children, and I am in agreement generally with this attitude. However, we all know of at least one couple who out of some devotion to a "higher cause" or whatever inflict some really stupid names on their kids.

... scratch that prior post, Renault’s too weak and too lame under any name to play boombox for Steppenwolf, “Get your motor running .... like a true nature's child ..," not in any Renault, not in the backseat, not in the front seat, not in any Renault under any name, just not safe at any speed ... sorry Renault owners (and all Zoe's), but as disgusting as it is, and was, in the Onion, I’d rather see Biden half-naked washing his Pontiac Trans Am in the White House driveway than to read this lame lawsuit ... what's in a name? -- hell with ‘em if they can’t take a joke ...

The worst name I've ever encountered was fittingly attached to a badge which was attached in turn to a girl behind the drive-up window at Wendy's. It was "LaToyletta." Jesus Christ on a cracker, there are some stupid folks out there. Well, at least she was working.

The second worst name I've had a brush with belonged to one of those "I'm the only authority on how my own is name is spelt" wackos. Her name was Gennaphur.

First,the Social Security administration does this routinely--people's names have to use the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet without diacritics. One of my professors had to change the spelling of her name on this account.

Secondly, Chinese of course is not written in letters, but in symbols which can stand for words or for sounds, depending. There are more than 10,000, and some of them are archaic or obscure. It is entirely possible, in China, to see someone's name written and have no idea how to pronounce it. You can also have many people with identically pronounced names but each uses different characters to write it.

There was a great SNL skit with Nicholas Cage where his character and his wife were trying to come up with a name for their baby. Every suggestion she offered was unacceptable to Cage, as he would immediately begin pointing out to her the different ways the child would be taunted. In the end, he gets a delivery addressed to something like "Mr. Asswipe Johnson," thus explaining his insistence that the name be untauntable. He says "How many times do I have to tell people: it's pronounced Oz-weep-ay."

@Qaestor:The worst name I've ever encountered was fittingly attached to a badge which was attached in turn to a girl behind the drive-up window at Wendy's. It was "LaToyletta." Jesus Christ on a cracker, there are some stupid folks out there. Well, at least she was working.

I knew a young lady years ago, a teacher, and she swears that one of her students (a girl) was named Clitoria.

Certainly, France hasn't shown any moxie since Verdun, so something like this, a move Michael Bloomberg would applaud, pretty much figures.

Brian said...@Qaestor:The worst name I've ever encountered was fittingly attached to a badge which was attached in turn to a girl behind the drive-up window at Wendy's. It was "LaToyletta." Jesus Christ on a cracker, there are some stupid folks out there. Well, at least she was working.

I knew a young lady years ago, a teacher, and she swears that one of her students (a girl) was named Clitoria.

Many many years ago I was a 'directory assistance' operator at night while going to college in the day time.

International and out of State requests. We had actual paper books that we would flip through to get the names and phone numbers. It was a very boring job, with the exception of the local calling area calls (The Tenderloin in SF) which were pretty interesting at 3:00 am when the drunks and cheap perverts would call in.

Anyhooo. We would spend time looking for funny names. Some that I remember. Some real and I'm sure some that were made up.

I used to crack up because, while they're all concerned about bullying over names, they don't put any safety gear around their playgrounds, so the kids are constantly cracking their heads open. The same thing at home (no carpeting and few rugs) so the sound of a watermelon splitting - followed by "WAAAAA! AAAH-WAAAAA!" - became music to my ears.

In the movie Splash, which came out out in 1984, Tom Hanks's character asked Darryl Hannah's mermaid what her name was. She was in N.Y.C. and looked up at a Madison Ave street sign, told him her name was Madison. He said "that's not a name." Until 1984 Madison wasn't among the top 1000 names in the SSN data base. It first appeared in 1985, the year after the movie came out, peaking at #2 in 2001-2002 It currently is #7 among girls' names.